They don't focus on resolution. They focus on the lowest common spec between XBO, PS4, and PC and they achieve what they want performance-wise on the lowest spec which has been not-1080p most of the time on the lowest spec console. Then once you have achieved that performance level, you tweak it based on available resources. They're not going to make a game based on what XBO can't accomplish, and since the PS4 will always hold a spec advantage on GPU, they will be able to do more with that version.
So I still don't understand why his argument exists. If XBO is the lowest common spec they have to cater to, and they're already dropping resolution to achieve it, and they don't have to drop resolution to achieve the same thing on PS4, we are still left with a situation where two consoles are nearly identical except one is capable of running a target that was ALREADY set based on what the weakest multiplatform console can do, but at a higher resolution.
Games are not getting gimped across all platforms because they're trying to achieve 1080p resolution on PS4. And disregarding a 1080p target on PS4 does not suddenly allow devs to achieve more within the game they're designing because they're still held back on what the lowest spec console can do. Just like CPU-bound things are held to the lower standard of what the PS4 can do when a game is designed.
So again, I don't understand the point of this article because even if they went with a 900p target on PS4, they would be rendering graphics intense enough to be forced to go below 900p on XBO. PS4 is doing 1080p not because of some mandate or just to check a box, it is doing so because it has that much performance overhead above the lowest spec target for the game.
These consoles don't exist in a vacuum alone, so discussing how developers shouldn't target 1080p on PS4 as it's unimportant disregards the reason they're hitting 1080p on PS4 which brings in a comparison to that other console that is playing the exact same games.
